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Stock Photography
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Just wondering if anyone here is with anyone ?
What their experiences have been and are they in fact able to get a stream of meaningful
revenue from them ?I use iStockPhoto , some money coming through, not enough to retire on :)
Don’t put much effort in shooting specifically for stock either though.Mark
My camera dosn’t really have the MP to make 50meg photos :P
There’s been quite a few articles on stock photography lately, I guess it is a handy source of a few bob.
With iStock too, and similarly I’m not quite in a position to get fat on the proceeds yet ;) It’s good technical training; just getting an image accepted is a challenge, then if it gets downloads too you know you have a good one.
The Mpx aren’t necessarily needed to earn money; my one biggest payout was from the Derrybrien windfarm pic that New Scientist used, and found via Flickr, and it was a crop from a 3.1Mpx D30 image reproduced as a full page+. Looked amazingly good considering how few pixels they had to play with.
I’ve been working for several stock agencies over the years – currently I’m with ARCO, OUTDOOR ARCHIV (both Germany) and COLLECTIONS (UK). In my opinion the classic stock agancy is doomed, because more and more picture buyers go for royalty free images (like iStock) or contact photographers directly via websites like flickr where they know they can get images very cheap from amateur photographers. This is no offence towards amateur photographers – their images can be as good or better than those of professionals. The point is that amateurs go for much lower rates than professionals who have to make a living from their image sales.
For all photographers – amateurs and professionals alike – this means less money for each picture sold – royalty free images are sold cheaper than licensed images – and the winners are the agency and of course the picture buyer.
So everybody who wants to sell images should think about how much each picture is worth – consider the cost of your equipment, travel costs and the hours of work you invest in each image.
Regarding MP there are some agencies that demand high end DSLR (12MP or more) but if you present them properly interpolated images (Photo Zoom Pro is very good) they won’t notice the difference if it’s an image out of a EOS 1Ds MarkII or an interpolated EOS 350D image.
And finally if you want to make enough money from stock sales to make a living you have to shoot for stock especially – and this can be a full time job. There are photographers out there who have specialized on stock and they make a good living from in. I am not one of them – Irish landscapes are not the topic to make a living from…
Carsten
Some good tips and advice there :)
carstenkrieger wrote:
Irish landscapes are not the topic to make a living from…
Carsten
Tell that to Giles Normal (albeit he sells directly from galleries, rather than stock)
Ah but there are very few people like Giles Norman making a living from landscape in fairness.
I’d imagine that its a hard market to break into.Unlike the UK the market is much smaller. There are no (that I’m aware of) magazines which they can
write for/contribute to like Colin Prior or Joe Cornish do.Mark
Hi Ciaran,
as the topic is stock photography I was talking only about stock photography. As making a living from landscape photography I do – just not from stock sales but through print sales, book publications, assignments and – from time to time – publications in print magazines like Outdoor Photography (UK), NaturFoto (Germany) and similar magazines.
However the Irish market is very small – Mark is absolutely right there – and it is difficult to make a break as a pure landscape photographer or nature/wildlife photographer. I am reguarly told if I want to make real money do weddings!
Carsten
Carsten, I must look out for you in Outdoor Photographer, I’m an avid reader of it
plus Amateur Photographer, Practical Photography and Photography Monthly :)Hmmm, thats too many I think ;)
SteveFE wrote:
With iStock too, and similarly I’m not quite in a position to get fat on the proceeds yet ;) It’s good technical training; just getting an image accepted is a challenge, then if it gets downloads too you know you have a good one.
The Mpx aren’t necessarily needed to earn money; my one biggest payout was from the Derrybrien windfarm pic that New Scientist used, and found via Flickr, and it was a crop from a 3.1Mpx D30 image reproduced as a full page+. Looked amazingly good considering how few pixels they had to play with.
Have to agree with the Mpx comment.. the one photo I had published was a 1/4 pg in a broadsheet from a 3Mp Nikon coolpix 775 …Full colour & everything on the back page of the sport section of the paper :) no payment as it was just the local county paper.
I’m not involved in stock photography, but I must admit that it is an area which interests me. I’ve heard of royalty-free CD’s of images. But the comments above on libraries having some sort of a royalty-free agreement with photographers are new to me. Could someone please explain how that arrangement works?
Thanks in advance.
Bertiecarstenkrieger wrote:
… Irish landscapes are not the topic to make a living from…
Carsten
Here in the West of Ireland, we have a photographer, Liam Lyons, who make a very good living from his
landscapes of Mayo. I was only talking to Liam in Westport last Monday and he is still in super form and even
though he’s retired from the general business side, his web business with his stock landscapes is doing
very nicely.BertieWooster wrote:
I’m not involved in stock photography, but I must admit that it is an area which interests me. I’ve heard of royalty-free CD’s of images. But the comments above on libraries having some sort of a royalty-free agreement with photographers are new to me. Could someone please explain how that arrangement works?
Thanks in advance.
BertieI would like to add that I received a very detailed and helpful PM on this topic from a fellow member MarieC. If anyone else has further interest in the subject I’d recommend that they contact her (or myself and I’ll pass on the info I received).
Thanks again, MarieC.
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